Education problems can be addressed with ‘Holistic Approach’: Dr. Zakar

Okara (HRNW)- The prevailing education problems including high dropout rate, students’ declining interest in education, poor retention and ill-prepared graduates can only be addressed by deploying a holistic approach by the policy makers and academicians, said the Vice Chancellor of the University of Okara, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Zakria Zakar in an online meeting with the faculty.
He argued that the youth’s well-being and success depended on more than just schooling and it needed to be looked at entirety and holistically.
He further told and students needed a wide array of essential supports and opportunities outside of universities in order to come to educational institutions and be read to learn.
“In order to learn and bear healthy minds, students need equal access to healthcare, food, clean water, stable housing and latest technologies. These education prerequisites go far beyond the purview of universities but rather are the responsibility of communities and society at large”, said Dr. Zakar.
He maintained that the ongoing pandemic had revealed the underlying social divide among students more clearly as a large number of students across the world had been found unable to afford smartphones and internet connections for online classes, thus being left out of the new academic system.
The VC urged the policy makers, the academicians and the society to learn from the crises and come up with a holistic approach to fix the issues of the education system by no merely focusing on enrollments but ensuring the provision of education prerequisites to more and more students.